February 25, 2010

OH WHAT A DAY!!!

After planning and saving for over a year, today was the day that I pulled the trigger and boy did it feel good. Let me catch you up what happened and why..

Since I had planned for several months to quit my job, I had plenty of time to choose when I would quit and also to figure out the best way to do it so that I didn't burn any bridges or at least did as little damage to those bridges as possible. Now some of my friends who some might classify as "bad influences" thought that I should go out "guns ablazin'" and really cause a scene. Now this isn't necessarily a bad idea because it sure is fun to get the last word, but I have already been down that road before.

Ok, so since this is my blog and I do what I want and you're gonna like it, I'll tell the story from my selective memory of the time I did go out "guns ablazin'":

Centerplate is a catering company that does the catering for all the events at Folsom Field (this is the stadium where the mighty Colorado Buffaloes play their football games!). These events range from recognition dinners to weddings and everything in between. As far as college jobs go, this was a pretty excellent job. Additionally, I worked with about 6 - 10 friends on most nights. Also to be noted was that alcohol was served at many of the events and like any good employees, we all imbibed our fair share during events. OK, so that probably sounds irresponsible to some people reading this (it certainly is), but I never claimed to be resposible so get over it. Anyway, the job was fun and most of the time we just set up tables and laid out dinnerware and did limited waitstaff duty. If you were lucky like a couple of my friends, you got to work the bar with Frank. As you can imagine, you cannot have a staff completely made up of college students. There were supervisors and most of them were pretty cool. Our direct supervisor, however, was not cool. Kristy, the supervisor, was a nitpicking bitch (I'm gonna cross the cursing boundary here and I'm not going back!). Kristy was the type of boss that micromanaged the most mundane of tasks. Is setting up tables and placing silverware on said tables difficult? No. But Kristy made the task absolutely tedious and succeeded in pissing most people off. Now, some of you may know me differently than others, but those who know me well know that I have very little patience for this kind of micromanagement. Basically, I didn't get along with Kristy very well.. Anyway, things went along very well for a few months, I was able to bite my tongue and enjoy working with some of my best friends so I was happy. But as my collegiate career was coming to an end, the real world loomed. Luckily I was able to find a good job at American Express Financial Advisors (presently Ameriprise Financial). Once I had secured this job, I found myself in a great position, I didn't care about my job anymore! So on one fateful night, I believe it was an Irish Wake, I had had it up to HERE with Kristy and also up to HERE with some red wine.. I imbibed a little too much and I found myself in a position where Kristy confronted me. Knowing that I was caught I decided to confront Kristy in front of everyone. I don't know if I have ever enjoyed telling someone off more than I enjoyed telling her off! It was magnificent! I told her how disrepectful she was. She didn't seem to think that going around moving a table a quarter of an inch here or adjusting silverware a bit there was insulting to people, but I informed her that it was in fact micromanaging and petty. To make a long story shorter, I left on pretty poor terms that night and the next day I skipped out on work and that was the end of that.

I did go back a few months later for our head supervisor's going away party and found myself a bit of a legend. People came up to me and said "YOU are the guy that told Kristy off!?" It was a great feeling!

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, quitting my job at TIAA-CREF. So I wasn't going to go out with a bang but I had talked to enough people that left to know that if you left for a competitor you would get your last two weeks paid for AND you were escorted out that same day! Two weeks of paid vacation! So today was that day. Now, its not necessarily something to be proud of, but I have a pretty good gift of making up stories that are very detailed and seem very real. So I had my story, I was going to tell my boss that I was tentatively offered a position at the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union as a Financial Consultant and that I would be moving to Philadelphia to live closer to the family. I could go on here but I didn't really have to get into much detail with my boss so I'm not going to get into it with you (you're welcome!) Anyway, I went into work and I waited for my opportunity and I dropped the bomb.

Now, I did say I didn't want to burn any bridges but that isn't necessarily true. There was a guy that I really wanted to smack. He was a little twerp name Steve DeBernardi. DeBernardi (just say that name out loud) was probably in my top 3 of people whose heads I wanted to jam in the copy machine and make photocopies of their heads while I screamed obcenities at and howled with laughter. DeBernardi is one of those people whose social intuition is so low that everyone around him secretly despised him. Of course, yours truly, was the ringleader of the shit talking about him. The day I quit DeBernardi thought it was his place to leave me with some pieces of wisdom he had acquired through out his years. He began to spew these idiotic aphorisms about life and my future. Now, of course I could have just ignored him as I had done for several months, but since I was cleaning out my desk I found this an ideal opportunity to tell that son of a bitch off. Being the bigger man, literally but maybe not in maturity, I didn't unlease a profanity-laced tirade like I would have liked to. But I got my parting shots in. I told him how wise he was and what an inspiration he had been, judging by my co-workers reaction, I had left in style!! (ok, so maybe you had to be there) I'll admit that it wasn't nearly as climatic as it maybe could've been but it felt damn good!!

So there you have it. I quit. I left the workforce and as of right now I don't have plans to rejoin the workforce until 2011. Oh what a feeling!!

Let the Journey Begin!

So here we are. I have finally decided to dip my toe into the proverbial blogosphere pool. Is it to rant about politics? comment on celebrities? maybe obsess over my favorite sports teams? Maybe, but the basic premise will be to update people on the current state of my travels and the goings-on of my life. I suspect family and some friends will follow and some acquantainces will also read if they stalk people as I am wont to do..

Anyway. I should probably start from the beginning since that is usually how stories are told unless you are Chuck Palahniuk and to be honest I don't have the skills or twisted storytelling ability to tell this out of order like Chuck would. So here goes...

About 2 years ago as I was grinding through the perpetual monotony that some people call work, if you "love your job" this probably sounds foreign to you and I really don't like you that much.. I decided that although I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself, I knew that a soul crushing job where I had to listen to a mindless boss drone on about TPS reports (this is a reference to Office Space, going forward if you don't understand something it is a movie or TV quote, get with the times!!) was NOT what I wanted to do. So I hatched a plan to quit my job and do what I knew I wanted to do, travel. So I scheduled my lease when I renewed it to end on April 12, 2010. The timing was specific because I was gonna graduate in May 2010 and I was going to use the time after quitting work to visit friends and family, attempt to be a good student as I finished up school, and then leave in June for Europe.

Well, as time passed and my plans evolved things became more clear and my plans changed to where they are today. So here is my itinerary:

2/27 - Kevin quits his much hated job
3/10 - Leave on a road trip to California to visit friends and family
4/1 - Return from Road trip and begin to pack up apartment
4/12 - Leave for Pennsylvania!
4/12 - 6/23 - Visit some friends along the eastern seaboard and compete in the Memorial (more on this later)
6/23 - Leave for Amsterdam
8/24 - Return from Europa!
8/29 - Leave for Lima, Peru
12/15 - Return from South America
Future? - To be decided...

Now some might be compelled to ask, why would you quit your job during the worst economic crisis in 30 years? Aren't you worried about what you are gonna do when you get back? These are all very practical questions to which I say: damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!! (clever Navy reference, eh?). In all sincerity, I am not concerned about the consequences or how this may affect my career or anything else, I am pretty sure things will work out just fine when I get back and if not there is always joining the circus or being a bum (I was thinking about doing that anyway..). Point is: I'M DOING IT!!

So here goes, let the journey begin! (another navy reference...)